Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Toy Chest Tuesday! Gargoyles

Oh a new week is upon us. My allergies are crappy due to pollen and ragweed. Thanks PinyPon. Anyways let's talk toys. Specifically toys that are scary stone statues by day and fearless winged warriors at night, Gargoyles! Brought to you by Kenner, Gargoyles was a series of toys based upon a cartoon of the same name. The basic premise was that these creatures were once living long ago in Scotland and were betrayed, more or less, by some hateful humans. A curse was placed and having been frozen for a really long time they were "released" in 1994 in modern day New York City. Everything always seems to happen in NYC. Gargoyles never would have taken place, in say, the middle of Montana. Ya know?

Anyways the toyline was really fun and featured many of the characters from the cartoon. Naturally I had the female characters only. The first one I got was Elisa, the NYPD officer that helped the Gargoyles. She will not be featured today. Instead we will be looking at the evil Demona, because nothing says "I'm a bad bitch" like the name Demona.

Once a member of the Gargoyle clan, Demona was in love with the main Gargoyle named Goliath. However she got spurned by her lover and with so many humans slaughtering her kind she kinda got bitter. Since then Demona's hatred for homo sapien rivaled that of even the mighty Magneto! (I smell an interesting crossover!)

Enough of the Cliff's Notes, let's look at the toy!



Some say the best part of a toy is the packaging. Packaging can make or break a toy. Kenner did a fantastic job of creating the right tone for what Gargoyles was all about. Dark and moody, the artwork was just perfect for this toy. Demona is inside a nice clear case with another drawing depicting the Gargal in action. Demona overall is a pretty impressive looking figure for what was being offered in 1995. Can I just say, anytime a figure comes with wings, it is a good day. Shocking red metal hair band hair is a total bonus.

Also let's look at the price tag for a second. I really miss Kay-Bee toy stores. Why-oh-why did they ever have to go bankrupt? My goodness that was the place to go to for clearance toys. This Demona had started at $7.99 and dwindled all the way down to $3.99. I miss mall toystores.


So upon looking closer we can see that some of the detailing does have that '95 charm. One eye looks a bit off and thank goodness body sculpting has come such a long way since. (Those shoulders! Dynasty called, they want their shoulder pads back.) Oh I kid. Cattiness aside, Demona also came with a firing stungun and a wing flap attack action feature. The stungun is spring loaded and can shoot the projectile with the press of a button. The best part is that Demona's wings move when her legs are squeezed together. Super fun. I also wish that there had been a variant of Demona while in her human form. During the series Demona makes a deal so that she can be alive during the day instead of turning to stone. Desiring to be a living Gargoyle 24-7 her hopes are slightly dashed once the magic deal is set turning her into a human during the day while transforming to Gargoyle at night. I would have loved her human form as a figure! Oh well.



Flipping the toy over we can see that a lot of stuff is going on. The dark moody theme is still apparent along with a biker feel with the motorcycle vehicle and the background metal stuff. A brief description of the Gargoyle's story is given in the upper left corner while a list of the available figures are shown below. There is also an advertisement for a Gargoyles movie on video.





The first row of figures show two different versions of Goliath, the main character. The second Goliath was always a cool figure because of his action feature. He had stone pieces all around him for when he was in his statue form, and then they could break away when he was ready to come out at night. (I feel like that Whodini song should be on right now.)


The second row were three of the good Gargoyles, Broadway, Lexington, and Brooklyn. I really thought it was cute that they had names that were associated with New York City. From what I recall with them waking up in modern day New York they needed new names, or didn't really have names to begin with. I don't know, it was so long ago that I first watched the cartoon. There were also other Gargoyles, these three were the first group from series 1. If I'm not mistaken Kenner actually ended up releasing quite a few Gargoyle action figures.


A motorcycle makes up the third row and features Brooklyn on the Rippin' Rider cycle. So here's the thing. I don't understand why a Gargoyle needs to ride around on a motorcycle. He has wings, can't he just fly to places? I mean I guess a motorcycle is faster than flying with your own wings. Having been wingless my whole life I'm not exactly sure about the level of exertion involved with flying. I just don't know. Of course it would probably be weirder if they had made a helicopter vehicle for the Gargoyles. Now that would have just been lazy. (Even though I do think there were some flying vehicles for the winged Gargoyles to... fly on.)


The final row featured the baddies from series 1. You've got your Steel Clan Robot, Demona, and Xanatos, the main villain. David Xanatos was a human and actually responsible for waking the Gargoyles up in New York. Having learned of their frozen statue curse problem, he threw some money around (like all rich white men do) and had the Gargoyle mansion moved to New York. And not the middle of Montana. 

One final little picture depicts how Demona's weapon and action feature work.


Again I really can't say enough about figures that come with wings. It is just a lot of fun. As is Demona. I really liked this toy and her character. I've made it no secret that I like a good female villain. True it seems like most female villains are bad because they want eternal beauty or some male "gone and done 'em wrong." But Demona was more than just a vain obsessed beauty or a scorned lover. She hated humans and wanted to have a part in their destruction. That's got to stand for something!

Anyways enjoy these pictures and feel free to leave comments with your thoughts and memories about Gargoyles. It was a fun line and I do hope they are able to come back to our shelves at some point in the future. I mean doesn't everything get rebooted sooner or later? Well, unless your Jem. Until next time!

9 comments:

  1. I was in High School when this cartoon and line came out, but since I had a steady girlfriend - I guess I thought it would be ok to collect toys from a kids show at that crucial time in life. This was just about when I decided I was a nerd no matter how I looked at it, even though I was strikingly handsome and popular. Heights of teenage accolade and fame couldn't even stop me from giving into my inner dork. I may be remembering some of that wrong. ANYWAYS! I had the whole first and second series, and I even mailed away for the VHS tape (dear God, I'm old). I also had an Kay Bee exclusive Xanatos' Roadster that came with a cool version of Xanatos where he was all business casual, which being the villain lover that I am said to me "Yeah, I'm an evil billionaire with a hidden agenda, but give me some X and a few glow sticks, and I'll dance all night. This is the '90's." I thought this was an incredibly cool line with great sculpts and nice action features. Elisa Maza was hard to find, but I had her...and also MacBeth who was voiced on the show by none other than Sallah/Gimli John Rhys-Davies. You're right Demona was a Bee-with-an-itch, and she was played by Marina Sirtis. Xanatos was played by Jonathan Frakes - THOSE TWO WERE IN LOVE ON STAR TREK:TNG. Wow, my brain hurts. Until next time Miss M!

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    1. I never collected much from this toy line when it first came out. I only had Elisa. I was in junior high I think when this line came out and I was trying to really be cool and not let people know I was hugely dorky. So I didn't collect as much as I would have liked at this time, but I eventually got over it. I knew I was never going to be super popular so I just enjoyed the toys. lol I did end up getting more friends in high school though, so that was good.

      Gargoyles was so awesome. I love your description of Zanatos, because I can totally see that. lol I just love all the connections and dorky stuff that was involved with this show. I also am in shock at all the stuff that you collected! I sometimes wish I had worked at a Kay Bee or something. I ended up working at the Icing instead. lol

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  2. Needless to say, my friend, I was a spoiled child. My Mom and Dad split up when I was six, and my Dad was never really in the picture after that (occasionally at best), so I think Mom tried to make up for Dad being sucky by buying me everything I wanted. I wasn't a little shit about it, though. I was very appreciative, and I took very good care of all of my stuff. The only time I got pissy was when we were in a store (my favorite was Hills - did they have Hills department stores where you are? They were exactly like K-Marts) and I would see something I knew was rare. If Mom said no, I would flip out because I knew even at a young age there was a good chance I'd never see that particular toy again. I'd start sweating and get all feverish. I sort of still do that now. I need help.

    What was the Icing? I never let any of my girlfriends know I was into dorky stuff. I was afraid they'd run! Back then, it was not okay to be a dork. I was supposed to have a mullet, and acid washed jeans, and Sebagos, and one of those shirts that would change color when you touched it. If these things weren't all in place you would be shunned! Now that I think about it, I don't think I even told my guy friends about my pop culture obsessions. I would just curse and say horrible things about girls just like all the other boys. Best to fit in, really. Little did they know I spent my nights wasting my gas driving all around looking for Batman the Animated Series figures and Spawn.

    If I had found a girl like you in High School, and really knew about your dorky secrets, I would have fallen head over heels in love. I wasn't sure girls like you existed, and really still wasn't 100% sure until I found your blog. So as your friend I insist you march right into wherever your husband is and give him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and tell him that the EightiesMan said he was very lucky :) He may ask if you're feeling well, but that's ok. Until next time, Miss M!

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    1. Oh my goodness I love that you would freak out about finding something rare in store and being aware of that at such a young age. I was completely the same way. I remember seeing Entrapta at a Kroger and I begged my mom to get it because I knew that was a rare item. That didn't happen because my mom thought I had enough. lol

      And there were no Hills stores where I live. We used to have K-Marts, but they totally shut down over here, which sucks because they always had a great toy aisle.

      The Icing was a teen jewelry store. They also had some clothes, but not much. It was mostly just jewelry. It is the same company as Claire's, but it was for an older crowd.

      I totally remember Hypercolor shirts though! My goodness those were such a big deal. Were you ever able to tell your friends the things that you were interested in? I remember telling some of my friends, but it was scary to do so because nobody I knew was interested at all. My girl friends thought it was cool and even recalled some of the things like She-Ra, but they were not going to collect. And my guy friends thought it was cool, but they were more into cars and things like that. So it was really just me collecting.

      And I'm glad you know that girl collectors exist! We are a rare breed, but not as rare as you think. And I will let my husband know how lucky he is! lol Even if he is still wondering why I have to have so much stuff. lol Hope you are doing well!

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  3. Let's take a trip back into time, Miss M (cue time travel harp music)...

    Something happened right around my Freshman year in High School, and I wish I could remember it vividly, where I just up and decided that I wanted to collect toys - mostly MOC. This would have been 1992. I thought I was all alone until I got my first job, and low and behold there was a guy (Chad)
    that worked there that collected toys also! He introduced me to McFarlane's Spawn line, so I went nuts for that for awhile. I was 16 then. Over the next few years toy collecting got to be really popular, mostly because Star Wars Power of the Force 2 came out in 1995. I of course had to have all of that too, and since I had a job and my own money - I went batshit crazy and bought two of every figure and vehicle. One to open and one to leave sealed. Times were good.

    The point of my story is that in my life, the time that I had no longer played with toys - but I bought them to collect would have been 1992. Nobody close to me knew I was interested in action figures, and I didn't know anyone else who collected them. I met Chad in 1994 and he was the first person I could share all of this with. We hit it off famously and to this day we are close friends. I'm 34 and he's 38 and we get as excited to tell each other today about our toys as we did 19 years ago. What's really cool, is that his girlfriend is my wife's hairdresser...and she collects Monster High and My Little Pony. She doesn't care for boy stuff though, although she buys him stuff from time to time.

    ...and that's the story of how I started collecting action figures. It's a crazy world Miss M, someone should sell tickets. Sorry I rambled on about my past, but I find yours very interesting and since we have a lot in common I thought you may want a peek into mine. I have found that when meeting people with shared interests, I find it fascinating to see what make other people tick - or in our case what types of things made us decide to collect like we do. I would like to also humbly ask to be put on the list for your clip and save feature. When you mentioned it the other day, I got quite excited. No rush as usual, I'm sure you have many things that take up your time. Hope all is good!

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    1. Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for telling me this story about your past! I vividly remember Spawn and the Power of the Force line. I collected some Spawn. I was starving for strong female characters and the 90's wasn't always the best time for that, but there were some very cool female characters from Spawn that I enjoyed collecting. And I remember searching high and low for a Princess Leia from the POTF line. Of course had I known just how many other Leia figures would be made throughout the years I would not have flipped out so!

      But I am glad you have your friend Chad! That is cool that his girlfriend collects MH and MLP. I am obsessed with those lines too.

      And I am so glad that you want to have a Clip 'n Save Reader file done! I will email you at some point this week with the questions and what-not! I am so happy you want to be a part of this! Yay! Thank you again for sharing that information with me.

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    2. They were a part of a really nice line.

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  4. The year was 2002
    I had found some Gargoyles at a flea market
    It was Goliath and Demona
    Both wingless....and probably tail-less too.
    Anyways I remember as a child who spend most of his time in front of the tv I had ALLOT of imagination to spare.
    I used to watch Toon Disney and make Lego gargoyles
    Demona was my favorite
    Maybe because she was a chick or because she was bad.
    Well back to the figures.
    I used to stay at my cousins allot
    Nobody understood what I liked they were all into video games.
    Well I remember my cousin's apartment was by the fences overlooking the street,right next to it.
    This fool took my Demona and threw her into the busy street and she was no more.��
    I was devastated I think I went and got her broken self off the street.
    The Goliath figure....gosh.
    There I was in my living room using my imagination.
    I was playing with him that he would fly(without wings though)
    Well he "flew" to the top of a lamp we had.
    I just left him there and got distracted with the TV.
    There was this burning smell lol!
    I was like hmmm I wonder what that smell is???
    It then hit me but it was too late that poor Goliath melted��
    Well at least I had my Lego gargoyle creations to play with now.
    Now I'm in my 20s and I feel I'm on the verge of having some nervous breakdown and just go crazy on EBay.
    One day I'll have a midlife crisis and fill my place with all sorts of toys I never had.
    Isn't that insane.
    Oh well

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